October 1931
464
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B i t s i n e s s
Paul’s hearers were “disobedient” ; that is, they were unpersuaded, and willfully so, after all the reasoning that he brought to bear upon them during .those fateful three months. Punishment was due them, as it was due Cain, who was cursed, not for the murder of his brother, but for the unbelief from which the murder sprang. Finally, the people “spake evil of that way,” rejecting the Word, which was preached to them, and attempting to find some other way of acceptance before God. When-our Lord declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and when He is rejected, that rejection is “speaking evil of the way.” It is not necessary that one should speak evil with the tongue. The mere refusal to accept the offered way of life in Christ is sufficient to give one a place with the unbelievers of Ephesus (John 14:6; Heb. 10:28, 29). The result was to be expected; the apostle “departed from them.” And when the apostle left them, God Himself left them. It was a most solemn hour when Paul withdrew from that synagogue. It was a solemn hour when Moses finally withdrew from the presence of Pharaoh and left him without hope and without God. And it is ever a solemn hour when God, after striving by every means to bring the water of life into a dry and parched soul, must finally turn away and leave that soul in its sin, awaiting the day when judgment must fall, as it did in the case of Pharaoh and these Ephesian Jews. But there was another result from the infidelity of these Jews. Paradoxical as it may seem, they actually advanced the truth, although they turned from it and spoke evil concerning it. As a result of their treatment of it, the Word went abroad for two full years, so that “all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord.” God always brings good out of evil. II. O pposed by S uperstition ( 11 - 20 ). The immediate cause of this opposition was the power displayed by Paul when “God wrought special miracles” by his hands. These miracles of healing were “special” for that time and place. They are not a part of God’s method in the normal course of His working in this age. For instance, it was near the scene of this lesson that Trophimus was left sick-— without being healed. The Jewish exor cists supposed that there was some sort of necromancy about Paul’s ministry, and that, if certain words were spoken, evil spirits would be cast out. The folly of such imitators is revealed in verses 13 and 14. These vagabond Jews, or exorcists, were a kind of spirit ualistic cult. Seeing Paul drive out de mons by the use of the name of the Lord Jesus, they took that Name upon their own lips; but they could only say, “We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preach- eth.” They could not support their asser tion. Here was profession without pos session, form without power, the taking of the Name without the receiving of the Person. But the attempt proved beyond doubt that Christianity can not be used as a charm, like those in which the heathen trust. The results issuing from this attempt to counterfeit the supernatural were four fold.
BLACKBOARD LESSON
provoke one another unto love and good works, not unto envying and jealousy. Thus this temperance lesson teaches us to guard against license, to put away the desires of the flesh and the spiritual pride which is the opposite of the meek and lowly character of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lesson Questions Vs. 13-15. By what higher law is the law of Moses superseded? How will the believer, redeemed by Christ; behave him self? Is his relation to God that of a slave who must obey his master, _or that of a son who, because he loves his fa ther, will respect his commandments? Vs. 16-18. What is the meaning of the words “not fulfill” in verse 16? How are the flesh and the Spirit always antagon istic to each other? What is meant by the expression: “led of the Spirit” ? Is will ing and intelligent following necessary? What is the difference between the state of the Christian and his standing ? Vs. 19-25. What are included in the works of the flesh? May some of them rise from religious motives just as cer tainly as others rise from sensuality? What is meant by the expression: “they which do s'uch things” ? How is the fruit of the Spirit manifested? Vs. 25, 26. What is vainglory? How may it be avoided? Golden Text Illustration At a banquet in New York during the visit of Dr. Lorenz, the great surgeon, he was reported by the newspapers to have said: “I can not say that I am a tem perance agitator, but I am a surgeon. My success depends upon my brain being steady. No one can take alcoholic liquors without blunting these physical powers, which I must keep always on edge. As a surgeon, I must not drink.” The Danger of Strong Drink G alatians 5:13-26 Memory Verse: “We will drink no wine” (Jer. 35:6). Approach :■Paul had so many things to tell the people to whom he preached 1 Sometimes he preached just the gospel story; other times he had to talk to people about how to live Christian lives. Lesson Story: Away up in the moun tainous country of Galatia, Paul learned
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were truly believers and followers of Christ had to change their lives. The ones who were quarreling had to say, “We will quarrel no more” ; those who were hating one another had to say, “We will stop hating and will love one another instead” ; and the ones who were drinking had to say, “We will drink no more, wine.” Perhaps it was drinking wine which caused all of the trouble. We know that it does make people quarrel and hate one another. There are still people who drink wine, and who quarrel a great deal. We hope that men like Paul will tell them to ask God to help them to “walk in the Spirit.” NOVEMBER 8, 1931 Paul in Ephesus Lesson : Acts 19; Ephesians 5:5-11. Lesson Text: Acts 19:8-20. Golden Text: “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Eph. 5:11), I. O pposed by I nfidelity (8-10). On his third missionary tour, Paul came to Ephesus, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue of the Jews. For about three months, he was there reasoning out of the Scriptures. But Jewish prejudice was too strong, and Jewish traditions were too commanding for these men of the synagogue to receive the Word. They went on in unbelief, which, when the truth had been heard and rejected, really amounted to infidelity. The manifestation of this infidelity is seen in verse 9. They were “hardened and disobedient,” as the Revised Version puts it. There are two meanings for the word translated “hardened.” One is “to be dry, parched, or a waste”—not because of what is there, but because of what is not there. Like a desert that becomes a gar den when the needed water is brought to it, the soul that is dry and parched is filled with life and vigor when the water of life is poured upon it. But the other meaning of the word is “to render stub born or obstinate.” The latter is the mean- ing in the verse before us. This idea is also contained in the account of the hard ening of Pharaoh’s heart when, although the water of God’s truth was poured up on it, it became flint-like in obstinate stub bornness. It is repeated in. the history of Judas. When the water of life bathed his soul, it revealed it to be willfully hard ened. These are illustrations of the tre mendous power for evil, locked up in the human heart, which can withstand the overtures of the love of God and can steel itself against the gracious softening influ ences of the water of life.
that people who be lieved in C h r i s t were fighting among themselves. T h e y were quarreling and hating each other; they were drinking and sinning. Paul k n e w t h a t this would n e v e r do. Here they we r e , men and w o m e n who believed t h a t
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the Lord Jesus Christ had saved them from their sins, and instead of showing Him how much they thanked Him for it by not sinning any more, they went right on doing all of these wicked things. Paul knew that they had not asked the Holy Spirit to make them strong and good. _ So Paul wrote them a letter in which he said, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” When the Gala tians stopped to think about it, they knew that Paul was right And the ones who
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